Drawing Layers: Butterflies and Flowers

One difficult concept for children in learning to draw is to mentally transform 3-D objects into two-dimensional ones. 
Betty Edwards talks about visually "flattening out the layers" in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.  She has the reader use a transparency to hold up to an object and then trace said object with a non-permanent marker in order to see the flattening process. While very useful advice for an adult or older child, I find this to be a bit too complex for younger children.


Instead, the advice from Mona Brookes in Drawing with Children has proved most helpful to me in teaching my own children what to do. Her advice is to teach children to always draw what is "in front" first and then to draw the things in the background next. After drawing the object in front, you "skip over" it with your pencil to draw the object in the background, continuing with your line until it is finished. 


To practice this concept, I chose one of my daughter's favorite subjects: flowers and butterflies. I often use graphics from the internet and found this graphic (actually a crochet pattern) of a butterfly, bee and ladybug in front of a flower. We first drew the butterfly, ladybug and bee. Then, I showed her how draw the flower and "skip over" the parts of the flower hidden by the bugs. Her finishing touch was to add a house and people. It was a pretty exhausting process for her, but if you compare her drawing above to the original, it's impressive for a 6-year-old. 

Linked to The Magic Onions

Art is the Root Word of "Start"

The first children, besides my own, that I ever tried to teach art to were the son and daughter of good friends.  The 6-year-old son, Cooper, was a bright, likeable child.  Much to my dismay, in the middle of each of our drawing lessons, Cooper would burst into tears and refuse to draw anymore, often negatively comparing himself to his older sister who seemed to do everything perfectly. Cooper’s outbursts were usually precipitated by a mark that he perceived as an irreparable “mistake”.  (I had the children purposely draw with pens or markers to avoid erasing.) At first, I was at a loss as to how to help him and a bit frustrated over his behaviour.  Eventually, I took the course of action recommended by Mona Brookes in “Drawing with Children”.  I constantly repeated the mantra that “there are no mistakes in art – only changes to be made” and tried to help Cooper think through what changes he could make to end up with a drawing that he was satisfied with and that expressed his thoughts.  Eventually, Cooper stopped the crying spells and began to understand how he make changes to his drawings that led to more exciting possibilities. This process with Cooper was an important lesson for me in observing one of the most valuable skills that children can learn through art:  problem solving.

So why is art important in a child’s education and why is it important in the church?  I will begin by answering the first question. (The second question will be another blog entry!)  Art assists children in developing foundational skills that will overflow into all other academic and practical areas of their lives.  Art is the root word of “start”.  Quite simply, art gives children a place to start.  A place to start developing language skills.  A place to start learning to solve problems.  A place to develop perseverance by seeing a project to its logical end.  Not to mention, that it is a fun place to start!

Art author and educator MaryAnn F. Kohl identifies 5 areas where children develop life skills through art:  communication, problem solving, social and emotional, fine motor, and self-expression / creativity.  I have written much in this blog about language development in young children.  Children are sensorimotor learners who have the ability to reflect, but lack the language skills to express themselves.  Here, art, be it visual or performing arts (music, dance) can help children express ideas that their tongues can not yet readily put into words.  And their art teachers, by asking the right questions, can help them begin to talk about their work.  Mona Brooks also writes that teachers have reported “dramatic increases in letter recognition and reading readiness” as well as increased motivation to read when art is combined with other subjects. (For details on the other areas, see Kohl’s article, “The Importance of Art in a Child’s Development”.)

Just as nature has a calming effect on children that increases concentration, Brookes also writes that children with attention deficit disorders also experience increased concentration when working on art projects.  Brooks herself was a teacher for at-risk students with learning disorders and writes of their progress in “Drawing with Children”. (Read more in the article, “Teaching Basics Through the Arts”.)

Jo Murphy, an art educator in Brisbane, Australia, drawing on the work of John Dewey and Elliot Eisner, writes that art teaches students to make judgements about qualitative relationships in the world, thereby increasing their problem-solving skills and ability to interpret their world. (Read the full article, “Creative Arts Develop Problem-Solving Skills”.)

Another great article to read on the benefits of fostering creativity and the hindrances to it is “Creativity in Young Children” by Sara Gable.

My own son is also now in a perfectionist phase where he frequently bursts into tears at having made a “mistake”.  This time around, though, I realize that it is an important part of his development.  And he is starting to problem-solve rather than being paralyzed by his mistakes.  A good start indeed. 

The following pictures are my children's rendition of a wonderful winter art project from Gail at That Artist Woman.  My son had his latest opportunity to problem solve while working on this project. 

Before: there were lots of tears when my son in a hurry to finish picked up a paintbrush and used black paint to paint the polar bear's features.  After what seemed like an eternity, he calmed down and began to think with me how he could change it.

After:  he decided to let the white and black paint dry and then paint over  what he didn't like with white paint.  Then, he drew the new facial features in with a pencil.  We were both pleased with  the result!

And just for fun, here is my 5-year-old daughter's painting.  I was so pleased with her polar bear stencils that she drew all by herself!

Teaching Children to Draw

When I tell people that I give my children drawing lessons, they often look at me as if I could turn water into wine.  Although it's been a magical experience to teach them, the method that I use to do it fortunately doesn't require any supernatural abilities. On a trip to the States just before my son turned three (almost 5 years ago), I was looking for some books with art projects for children.  I caught a glimpse of the book below:

 

Every once in a while you run across a book that changes your life.  As soon as I saw this, I knew that I had to have it. I was especially intrigued by the subtitle: "A Creative Method for Adult Beginners, Too".  Could I (gasp!), who had always tried to draw, but was unable to overcome my perfectionism, actually learn to draw as well?  The answer was yes, and I would get to teach my children and others as well.: )

The premise of Mona Brooke's phenomenal book is that absolutely anyone can be taught to draw.  There are basic components in drawing, that once you know them, enable one to learn.  It is comparable to the phonetic sounds in a language that help one to learn to read, or notes in music.  Knowing these basics principles, according to Brookes, is key to developing drawing skills. 

Equally important is having the right attitude, which proved to be the key to helping me as an adult, and is also essential for children to progress. One of Brookes' sayings that has become my mantra with children, is that "in art there are no mistakes, only changes to be made".

The following is a little bit of what I have learned from Ms. Brookes. A typical drawing lesson begins with simple relaxation exercises for the eyes and limbs.  Then we review the basic shape "families" by finding things in the room or outside the window that belong to these families. Next, I give each child a set of warm-up exercises that are much like scales and etudes in music.  Below is what I gave my 4-year-old daughter on Tuesday.  My sketches are in black and hers in red.  The object is not for her to make an exact copy of what I have drawn, but rather to fill in the space in a similar manner.

On this particular day, we decided to do a still life of pumpkins, chestnuts and leaves.  I recently started letting her use oil pastels and she was very excited about this.  Together, we drew the still life with me guiding her through the shape families that the objects are composed of.  I drew on my paper and she drew on hers. 

Here is the her result below.  You'll notice that it is not an exact representation, but that is not the purpose of drawing.  When we draw, we interpret what we see rather than making exact copies.  What is also interesting in her pictures are the repetition of certain elements that are early indicators of design.

I know for sure that I didn't find this book by accident. Though creative as a child, frustration at not being able to draw realistically led me to give up on myself as an artist.  And in another life, I might have studied art education.  There were other factors as well that caused me to follow another path, including lack of an adequate art program at the time I was growing up; the Berlin Wall coming down as I was entering university and making the idea of learning Russian irresistable; and the lie that art teachers are only people who couldn't make it in the art world themselves.  Anyway, the path that I eventutally followed led to some very valuable life experiences, and when the time was right, God began to resurrect dreams that had been dead so long that I had forgotten about them.